Freedom 76er Modified Pit Notes

Ryan “The Ringoes Rocket” Godown invaded the 1/3-mile clay high banks of Grandview Speedway on Saturday night to be one of the 67 drivers participating in qualifying events for the 51st Annual Freedom 76-lap Modified feature.

The decision to travel from New Jersey was a profitable one for the 2021 Bridgeport Motorsports Park Modified point champion. Godown outgunned leader and last year’s winner Jeff Strunk, who was vying for his ninth victory in the prestigious event, on the 52nd lap restart and was able to continue the momentum until he pulled into victory lane for a $30,000 plus payday which was his first ever triumph in the race.  Standing in victory lane he commented he couldn’t believe he was standing there and that he just kept plugging on the bottom knowing Strunk was behind him.

Tim Buckwalter started on the pole in the Saxton Motorsports No. 23X.  Buckwalter wasted no time in taking off on the start and soon began to pull away from fellow competitors Jordan Henn, Ryan Krachun, Dylan Swinehart and Frank Cozze.

Buckwalter’s sizeable lead was erased by Ron Haring Jr. when he brought out the first yellow on the 13th lap after stopping in turn two. Buckwalter continued the pace when action resumed, but by now Krachun and Cozze were putting the pressure on him.

The yellow was out again on lap 24 when Meme DeSantis spun in the third turn. The front of the pace was approaching. Buckwalter and Krachun avoided him, but Cozze, who was third and Brett Kressley, who had just moved into sixth, weren’t as fortunate. DeSantis and Cozze went off on the hook. Kressley drove away under his own power and went pit side never to return to action. On the restart Strunk, while fourth, swept to the outside and in a daring move and was now the new leader being pursued by Buckwalter, Godown, Krachun and Duane Howard.

Godown overtook second on the 27th lap and set his sights and goal at passing Strunk.

Once again the pack was regrouped when Davey Sammons stopped in the second turn backstretch apron. Strunk wasted no time pulling away since he knew Godown was just waiting for the right opportunity to pass him and cross the win off his bucket list.

The red had to be thrown on the 47th lap following a homestretch accident that blocked the track. Before the race went green again, Manmiller, while running fifth, had to make a pit stop with a flat tire. He rejoined the race in the rear, but was only able to get up to 11th. On the restart Strunk kept Godown behind him, but Godown stayed right with him and didn’t give up.

Cole Stangle brought out the final yellow on lap 47 when he stopped in the second turn with a flat tire. This restart saw Godown charge past Strunk into first.

While Godown showed the way now Strunk, Buckwalter, Howard and Krachun tried to chase him down.

Lapped traffic entered the picture once again on the 63rd lap and this allowed the second through fifth place drivers to reel Godown in, but they couldn’t get the job done and Godown went on to claim the victory. Finishing second was Strunk trailed by Buckwalter, Howard and Krachun. Sixth through tenth were Ryan Grim, Craig Von Dohren, Billy Pauch Jr., and Dillon Steuer. Manmiller received the Bobby Gunther Walsh Sponsor’s Hard Charger award worth $760. He gained 20 positions as he went from the 34th starting spot to 11th.

Mike Maresca, Steuer, Dave Dissinger, Jared Umbenhauer, Godown and Kressley won the six qualifying events. Rick Laubach and Brian Hirthler won the consies to advance to the Schaeffer Motorsports Minuteman 20.

Qualifying through the Minuteman 20 to get into the Freedom 76 were Mike Gular, Davey Sammons, Danny Bouc, Manmiller and Varin.

The winner of the GT Radiator Repairs Cash Dash worth $1,000 was Brett Kressley.

Freedom 76 Modified Feature (76-Laps):

 1. Ryan Godown, 2. Jeff Strunk, 3. Timmy Buckwalter, 4. Duane Howard, 5. Ryan Krachun, 6. Ryan Grim, 7. Craig Von Dohren, 8. Billy Pauch Jr., 9. Dillon Steuer, 10. Clay Butler, 11. Doug Manmiller, 12. Dylan Swinehart, 13. Brad Brightbill, 14. Jared Umbenhauer, 15. Dominick Buffalino, 16. Nate Brinker, 17. Dave Dissinger, 18. Cole Stangle, 19. Ray Swinehart (past winner provisional), 20. Mike Gular, 21. Brad Grim, 22. Danny Bouc, 23. Mike Lisowski, 24. Louden Reimert, 25. Jordan Henn, 26. Bobby Varin, 27. Davey Sammons, 28. Nick Rochinski, 29. Michael Maresca, 30. Frank Cozze, 31. Brett Kressley, 32. Meme DeSantis, 33. Ron Haring Jr.

DNQ:

Briggs Danner, Mike Laise, Ryan Lilick, Jimmy Leiby, Bobby Gunther Walsh, Joe Funk III, Kenny Gilmore, Billy VanInwegen, Mark Levy, Jesse Leiby, Danny Erb, Brett Gilmore, Craig Whitmoyer, Brad Arnold, Danny Creeden, Kyle Merkel, Glenn Owens, Steve Young, John Willman, Cale Ross, Kyle Weiss, Dan Lane, Ryan Watt, Dan Waisempacher, Ron Kline, Kevin Hirthler, Cory Merkel, Rick Laubach, Brian Hirthler, Justin Grim, Billy Osmun, Jack Butler and Kevin Graver Jr.

Schaeffer Motorsports Minuteman 20: 1. Mike Gular, 2. Davey Sammons, 3. Danny Bouc, 4. Doug Manmiller, 5. Bobby Varin.

GT Radiator Repairs Cash Dash (10 Laps): 1. Brett Kressley, 2. Mike Maresca, 3. Jared Umbenhauer, 4. Craig Von Dohren, 5. Timmy Buckwalter, 6. Jeff Strunk, 7. Dillon Steuer, 8. Dave Dissinger, 9. Ryan Godown.

Modified Pit Notes

67 modifieds entered this year’s Freedom 76er with only Matt Stangle suffering motor damage in practice on Friday night and unable to make the call for the heat races on Saturday.  66 cars attempted to qualify for the 2021 Freedom 76er with 33 starting in the 76 lap feature.

A solid group of New York visitors were Mike Maresca, Bobby Varin, Billy VanInwegen and Danny Creeden.  Both Maresca and Varin qualified for the feature.

The Freedom 76er has a unique format which qualifies 4 from each of 6 heats for a total of 24 drivers qualifying for the redraw from the heats.  Another 3 drivers have automatic redraw positions for Grandview points champion, Forrest Rogers Memorial and Bruce Rogers Memorial winner for a total of 27 drivers in the redraw.  The top five from the Minuteman 20 are added heads up starting with the 28^th position.  Former winner provisional positions are then added to the back of the field and Ray Swinehart was the only one this year in 33^rd starting position.

Ryan Godown won his first Freedom 76er from the 11^th starting position.  Ryan won his heat race and qualified for the cash dash which he used to try setup changes for the feature but they didn’t work so he went back to his original setup for the 76 lap feature.  Godown took over the lead on lap 52 but encountered lapped traffic in the form of the Ray Swinehart occupying the bottom groove which bunched the top 5 back up nose to tail from lap 62 to the end of the race.  The bottom took rubber and no one could get out of the rubber to make a pass and Godown drove into victory lane with Jeff Strunk in a close second.

 In victory lane Ryan Godown reflected “I can’t believe it; this is just crazy.  I was trying to get Jeff on the early restarts and he kept moving his restart lines around.  I thought I have to be patient as I can be; but can’t let Jeff get out in front in clean air because once he gets there you can’t get him back.   I prayed to get one good restart and I got it on lap 52 to get the lead from Jeff.  We just had to keep Strunk back there for 24 more laps.  When we hit the lapped traffic Gular went immediately to the top and let us race and I was very thankful to Mike for doing that.  Maybe Ray’s (Swinehart) radio was broken; because he stayed in the preferred bottom lane and I decided not to play around with the top and get stuck up there since I’ve lost too many times that way.  So I just stayed down in the rubber and looked for a nose on the top which fortunately never came.  I was praying to see the white flag but the checkered was even better.”

Godown continued “I can’t believe we won the 76er; you only get one shot a year at it.  We practiced last night and were a bag of garbage.  We changed things back for hot laps and heats and were good.  We tried a few things for the cash dash that didn’t work so we went back to what we know works.  We got it right for the feature and I knew 9 laps in; that if I didn’t screw up we were good enough to win.  I don’t know what this win means yet since I’m still processing it but I do know the 76er is about patience.  The older I get I’m probably a little more patient.  In my younger days I would had been a battle axe out there today.  This win is complete for me and never in million years did I think we would win the 76er.”

Jeff Strunk finished 2^nd from his 9^th place finish.  On the lap 25 restart; Strunk made a move through the middle from 4^th to 1^st and past Krachun, Godown and Buckwalter to take over the lead.  On lap 52 restart Godown took over the lead where he stayed for the final 24 laps.  Postrace Jeff stated “On the last restart the motor started laying down and I didn’t think we were going to make it to the end.  We didn’t take off well on the final restart and had a vibration but no excuses; Ryan drove a great restart and a heck of a race.”

Tim Buckwalter finished 3^rd from the pole starting position.  Postrace Tim commented “We been here 6 or 7 years and this is the first time we have been in the top 10 and we are happy with 3^rd behind two really good guys.  After we won the championship at Big Diamond; I told Norm we were going to change the whole program around and we went to coils for the rest of the year.  After the Cash Dash; I went back to the spring smasher and changed 3 shocks and springs before the feature.  We’ll take 3^rd out of 60 some cars any day.”

Duane Howard finished 4^th from an 18^th starting position.  Postrace Howard stated “Not so good redraw starting 18^th and the car was really good early; but as expected about half way through the track went to bottom dominate track.  In the end of the race we missed the balance a little and struggled in the corners and couldn’t move around due to the rubber down on the bottom.  I thought we could get 3^rd but with the conditions I would need to move the 3^rd place car and I don’t race that way.  We’ll see if we can do better at the next race.”

Ryan Krachun returned to racing with a 5^th place finish from a 4^th place redraw.  Ryan stated” This is a fun place to race with truly some of the greatest drivers in the Northeast.  We came here on Friday night for our first race after our shop flooded.  We were pretty fast in Friday night practice and found some stuff.  In the feature I went to easy since I could feel the track rubber up and thought the tires were wearing.  In the end I had more tire left than I thought.  I was too conservative with the tires tonight and should have pushed a bit harder.  It was still a good night as we were able to keep the car underneath me and get our first 76er top five finish.”

Ryan Grim finished 6^th from a 14^th starting position for his best overall finish since opening day of the season.  Ryan reflected “This was our best all-around good night of the season. We found something a few weeks ago and we have been good ever since.  This was only the 3^rd time this season we qualified from the heat race.  In the feature we got in a jingle right away and only lost one position.  On all the restarts we were on the top and had to try to get down to the bottom as quickly as possible.  Today was the first time all season we had a good car in both the heat and feature.  This was a great way to wrap up what was a very tough season for us this year.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 7^th from his 24^th redraw position.  Von Dohren never really became a factor as he was saddled with a 24^th starting position but managed to still move forward to a 7^th place finish.

Billy Pauch Jr made his depute in Norm Hansell’s 357 entry and finished 8^th from a 7^th starting position.  Back at the trailer Billy Jr. said “Norm gave me a good car to race tonight.  On Friday night I felt like we had a car that could win.  Tonight I felt like we missed the setup a little and just had a status quo car all night.  We came out with a top ten and in one piece.  I haven’t been very good at Grandview over the past two year and want to thank Norm for showing faith in me at Grandview.  We need to get some lap time here to figure out how to get better.”

Dillion Steuer finished 9^th from a 22^nd starting position.  Dillion stated “Yeah we got off to a great start winning our heat race. Unfortunately after the redraw we found ourselves starting 22nd. The first half of the race was all about whether or not your lane moved and a lot of times I was stuck behind guys running side by side. But around halfway; there was a nice green flag stretch and I was able to pass around 12 cars and get to 8th. On the last restart we got shuffled back a spot and by then I felt like the bottom was too dominant to get any more positions.”

It’s been 2 years since Clay Butler raced at Grandview and he returned in grand style with a 10^th place finish.  Back at the trailer Clay noted “Just qualifying for the 76er is already a win for us let alone a 10^th place finish which is unbelievable.  We were not very good on Friday’s practice and were going to go home and not return for Saturday.  My girlfriend convinced me to return and try to qualify.  We went home and changed the car around and I listened to her and we came back and the rest is history.  We started 13^th and quickly fell back to 20^th; but were able to work our way back through the field.  We had several closes calls but were able to stay clear of them all and finish in 10^th.  I’d like to thank Cray Motorsports and Buck Baker Racing Schools for their support.”

Doug Manmiller finished 11^th from his 31^st starting position.  Doug was up to 5^th position on lap 46 when he had to pit for a flat tire. He went to the rear of the field but was able to work back to an 11^th place finish and was the hard charger of the night.  Doug reflected “We had a really good car to go 26 positions in 45 laps.  I made a mistake and it resulted in the flat tire.  I would’ve like to have seen what would have happened if we didn’t get that flat.”

Dominic Buffalino returned to Grandview in last year’s winning car the # 126 of Glenn and Bonita Hyneman.  Dominic started and finished 15^th in the 76 lap feature.  Dominic reflected “We were trying stuff on Friday night and were fastest in two of our three sessions.  We were fast but the car was not good.  On Saturday we went back to our normal setup.  We were good in the heat race but in the feature we were too tight early and lost our opportunity to move forward.  We went to the rear of the field first due to a tangle and then a second time due to a contact flat.  We were able to come back through the field both times and finish 15^th.”

Dominic continued “the 126 may be back at Grandview; but the car is not setup the same as it was when Jeff won his last year.  Jeff was on bars while I’m on coils so it is a completely different setup in the car.  We talked about using Jeff notes and making a change to torsion bars but we ultimately decided against changing to torsion bars since I have no experience driving on bars.” 

Nate Brinker is a track regular who has had some miserable luck with tangles in recent weeks.  Nate finished 16^th from a 19^th starting position and completed all 76 laps without one tangle.  Nate reflected “We were just happy to qualify for the 76er in my modified rookie year.  We started 19^th and the car was junk and I think we dropped back to 33^rd.  After the fuel went down and track rubbered up the car came around and we started to move forward.  We accomplished all of our goals which were making the field; running 76 laps; and keeping the car straight.”

Cole Stangle had a busy weekend with entries in both the 38er and 76er.  The 14 year old put both cars in the program finishing 11^th in the 38er and 18^th in the 76er.  Cole noted “It was a scramble on Friday jumping from car to car but a great experience.  In the 76er we had a late flat and still finished 18^th from a 27^th starting position.  It was awesome to qualify for the Freedom 76er in my first try and to race and qualify in both the 38er and 76er in the same weekend.”

Mike Gular had a real good car with a lot of bad luck and finished 20^th from a 28^th starting position.  Mike recalled “We had a real good car on Friday and found something.  Then comes the draw and we haven’t drawn a decent number all year.  Tonight was no different drawing dead last in 11^th for the heat race.  Car was really good and we moved from 11^th to a 5^th place finish.  We were a fender out of 4^th place which would have gotten us in the redraw.  As it turns out we had to go to the “Minuteman 20” which we won and put us in 28^th starting position in the feature.  We were in a wreck early on which sent us to the back of the field.  We had just worked back up to 12^th and got in another wreck and bent the car this time.  We rode it out in 20^th with a bent car on a single lane rubber down track.  We had a car good enough to win but just can’t draw anything reasonable.” 

Frank Cozze had a great early run going in 3^rd place when disaster struck and he got collected by a spinning Meme DeSantis which ended his night early.  Frank commented, “We had a swell car all weekend and was just riding in the top five early in the race.  Starting “up front” was a big help but unfortunately we got caught up in a wreck that ended our race.  It’s always been like that for 48 years and we’ll move on to the next race.  Grandview is one of my favorite tracks to race on.  By feature time it is usually a “drivers” race track.”

Brent Kressley was already up to 7^th when the hole closed before he could get through the Meme DeSantis and Frank Cozze wreck.  Tim Buckwalter had just gone through passing between Meme DeSantis and the wall before Cozze slide up and closed down the high line.  Brett reflected “We had an excellent car and learned a few key things on Friday night that we applied for the feature.  We were on our plan to be in the top five around halfway while also conserving our tires.  I saw the hole on the top and by the time I reached it Cozze had slide up and closed it right after Buckwalter went through.  Track was good and you had gain some spots early and be in the right position at the end.”

Earlier in the night Brett Kressley won the Cash Dash $1,000.  Brett stated “We qualified for the cash dash but had bent up the front end from the heat race.  We brought our backup car and we were able to use that car for the Cash Dash while the primary car was being repaired for the 76er.”

Dan Waisenpacher broke his primary motor on opening day and his backup motor a few weeks later.  After five months of rebuilding his motors Dan has returned for one more shot at the 2021 season at the 76er.  Dan shook the car down on Friday night and was happy to qualify in the 6^th position in heat one and get to run in the Minuteman 20.  Dan recalled “ In the heat I fell back quickly; but then there was a tangle that I was able to get through.  On the final restart I started in 10^th and manage to meet our goal and qualify for the Minuteman 20 in the 6^th and final position.  In the Minuteman 20 we had some good starts that were taken off the board and on the 3^rd restart we had heavy contact and bent the front axle.  I was able to finish but car was a handful with a bent axle.”

Ryan Watt continues to be plagued with bad tire luck.  A flat tire in the heats at the Coal Cracker led to the defending champion being a DNQ in this year’s Coal Cracker.  Ryan’s tire luck followed him to the 76er and the flats continued in both his heat and the Minuteman 20 which again resulted in another DNQ at the 76er for the 14W team.

Grandview weekly regular Ron Haring had some good luck with redraws this weekend but bad luck with radiators.  Ron had good starting positions in both his heat and the 76er but developed a radiator problem in the feature and was the first car to drop out on lap 12.

Saturday, October 16, 6 p.m. Thunder on the Hill Series featuring Triple 20 features for Small Block and Big Blck Modifieds plus Sportsman.